Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

184 ST Kit UA.
;vl)at means his reputation has been so perveited, it
:;vould be hard to say. Thus the world gives a bad name,
and distributes its praise and blame. He bore a far dif-
ferent character in ancient Rome ; and in Greece too,
since Aristotle says that he made a point of keeping
silence whenever the Eagles flew over Mount Athos.
The Puffins are not so cunnino-.
Although cod and ling abound here, the people do
not fish for them ;
nor do they seem to take fish from the
rocks, as is common in the islands. This must be attri-
buted to the abundant supply of food which their birds
yield, and which they prefer to all other diet : although
they would prove an intractable morsel to any but a well-
educated stomach. But the gastronomy of one country
is not the gastronomy of another; and a St. Kilda man
would doubtless find it as inconvenient to feed on putrid
skate M'ith an Amphytrion of Barra, as a Barra man
would to remove an indigestion produced by rancid gan-
net, by means of the stomach of the same animal stuflTed
with its own fat.
Whether a fishery might not advantageously be
carried on here, is a question which concerns the pro-
prietor more than themselves. Were it even for do-
mestic consumption only, the population might thus be
increased ; but it would not be effected without first
raising the rent of the island. A fishery for exportation
could scarcely be productive of any advantage to them :
as it is apparent enough that they would inherit little
more than the labour, while the proprietor would take
the profits. They would have little reason to thank me
for such a suggestion ; since the}' have much to lose and
little to gain by any change of their present easy system.
But I am now writing the observations and opinions of
1815. The Island was then immediately under its very